Cricket is a sport which has a long history in Africa though over the years, it still remains one of the least developed sports on the continent.

The game of Cricket was introduced to Africa precisely South Africa during the era of the Napoleonic wars with the first recorded match being in 1808 in the South African city of Cape Town.

Over the years, almost all the 52 countries on the African continent have embraced it but its popularity and tendency to pull crowds as football, boxing and others do remains less.

In Rwanda, Cricket has been played for close to three decades. According to the Rwanda Cricket Association, the game started in 1994 when Rwandans living in exile in English-speaking cricket-playing countries – such as Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, returned home and started playing it while studying at the National University of Rwanda and IPRC Kigali.

Just as other sports, it started to grow and an official body was founded in 1999/2000 to run it activities and this was the Rwandan Cricket Association.

Currently an estimated 23,010 people play the sport in Rwanda and there is an 11-month Cricket season calendar.

Over the years, Rwanda continues to make giant strides in the sports as the country hopes to become one of forces to reckon with on the continent.

In 2011, the country were the winners of the TCC T20 Division 3 tournament and in 2018 they hosted the East Africa TCC Tournament.

Last year, Rwandan hosted a series of Cricket tournaments namely ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Africa Qualifiers, the ICC Men’s T20 Sub Regional World Cup Qualifiers Group A and the ICC Men’s T20 Sub Regional World Cup Qualifiers.

In an effort to churn out quality cricket players and coaches, Musaale Stephen, the President of Rwanda Cricket Association who has worked tirelessly over the years held a meeting with H.E Amir Muhammad Khan, the High Commissioner of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan last week on how the Asian country can help the sports to improve in Rwanda.

Coaches from Pakistan which is one of the best cricket nations in the world could be sent to Rwanda to help develop more talents in the game in the coming years as Rwanda hopes to be the best in Africa.

With an ultra-modern cricket park located in Gahanga, Rwanda has laid down a great structure for the sports to thrive. All that is needed is the technical men to impact more knowledge on the players.